EDUCAUSE Policy
The EDUCAUSE policy staff watches for federal policy developments that have major implications for the role of IT in higher education, often in cooperation with other associations and organizations.
Key Issues
Third-Party Servicer Guidance, U.S. Department of Education (ED)
- U.S. Department of Education Suspends TPS Guidance Effective Date, Ban on Foreign Owned / Located TPSs
- EDUCAUSE and Third-Party Servicer Guidance
- EDUCAUSE Comments: Dept. of Ed. Guidance on Third-Party Servicers (TPSs)
- EDUCAUSE Comments: Examples of TPS Guidance Problems (with ARL)
- Resources from Other Organizations
Information Security and Data Privacy
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Safeguards Rule (and Federal Student Aid (FSA) Compliance)
- FSA Issues Guidance on Safeguards Rule Compliance
- FY22 Federal Single Audit: Safeguards Rule Objective Unchanged
- Higher Ed Responds to Proposed Safeguards Rule Reporting Requirement
- Cyber Incident Reporting Under the Safeguards Rule?
- Policy Analysis: Revised, Highly Prescriptive FTC Safeguards Rule
- Historical Background
- Research Cybersecurity
- National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33)—Cybersecurity Requirements for Institutional Research Security Programs: Problems with National Research Cybersecurity Requirements
- Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC)
- U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) "CMMC 2.0" Overview Briefing
- EDUCAUSE Raises Concerns About DoD CMMC/800-171 Assessment Rule (Related to original CMMC framework, now superseded by "CMMC 2.0")
- CMMC and Fundamental Research: EDUCAUSE Joins Groups in Raising Concerns
- Federal Privacy Policy: A Possible Move Toward Comprehensive Federal Privacy Legislation
- Cyber-Incident Reporting
Networking/Telecommunications
- Funding Opportunities for Federal Broadband Programs
- Beyond Social Media: The Full Context of Section 230
- Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Offers Some Opportunities for Higher Ed
- Closing the Institutional Digital Divide: The REN Infrastructure Proposal
- Net Neutrality
- Biden Administration Promotes Net Neutrality
- Historical Background
- EDUCAUSE Joins Net Neutrality Amicus Brief
- FCC Says Good-Bye to Net Neutrality (Includes link to final higher education/libraries coalition letter to the FCC highlighting the faulty reasoning in the FCC's repeal order)
IT Accessibility
- Web Accessibility Regulations Are Poised to Be a Focal Point in Spring 2023
- Lawmakers Introduce the Online Accessibility Act
- EDUCAUSE Continues to Support Accessible Instructional Materials Legislation
- Bipartisan AIM HIGH Legislation Introduced in the Senate
General Analysis
- Federal Policy Perspectives on the EDUCAUSE 2023 Top 10 IT Issues
- February 2021: Continuity and Change in Higher Education IT Policy